Merel Keijzer to join NIAS as Distinguished NIAS Lorentz Fellow
13 October 2026Keijzer studies additional language learning and multilingualism across the lifespan, with a particular interest in older adults and in how using more than one language affects their cognition and wellbeing. She heads the Bilingualism and Aging Lab and is Vice-Dean for Research at the Faculty of Arts in Groningen.
At NIAS, she will work on her project From language barriers to meaningful participation: Building technology-supported scaffolds towards equitable dementia care for migrants. In the Netherlands, Alzheimer’s disease is up to four times more prevalent among migrant populations. Yet migrant communities make far less use of dementia care, and language barriers add to the burden on older migrants with dementia and those who care for them. Keijzer will explore how Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) technology, from simple communication cards to digital applications, can enable meaningful engagement where there is no shared language. Building on the use of personalised memory books in reminiscence therapy, she aims to develop a scalable prototype.
The Distinguished NIAS Lorentz Fellowship is awarded jointly by NIAS and the Lorentz Center in Leiden.
